Diversity of Friendships

Yesterday, in one day I communicated with friends in Scandinavia, Jamaica, and Iraq. Oh, and Kenya the day before.

How diverse is your circle?

When you love people from all over the world, you care on a personal level. It’s not just some abstract idea, of a sea of people who don’t look like you do, anymore.

These people are more like us than many give them credit for, because many people don’t know anyone beyond their own “bubble”.

They want the same things, and usually much less than we do! Like the basics of food, water and shelter. Healthcare is just a dream for many. They all want peace.

These people are part of how my political views changed. As I loved my Heavenly Father more, I wanted to love others, as Jesus did, and told us to do.

As I’ve listened to different world views, and respected them, I had to look inside and see my biases, or simply acknowledge my lack of education, when it came to their experiences. I loved them just as they are, right where they are, and learned so much that I would have never known otherwise!

White history is not everyone’s experience. We have to acknowledge that the times that we, as white people, considered great, were actually some of the worst times for minorities.

God has already blessed America with so much. We didn’t need to be great again. We just needed to acknowledge and appreciate our greatness that we already had, especially compared to many other parts of the world! We’re losing our greatness, as we isolate ourselves and cut off aid to those suffering!

By not helping control disease outbreaks around the world, we also put ourselves at risk, because those diseases don’t care if you’re American. Do you think Ebola would have been stopped, if our Aid organizations hadn’t been there? That’s just one example.

We’ve also stopped sending vaccines to control diseases and millions will die from that. Of course, why would we vaccinate the world when we’re stopping vaccines for our own children, as more and more kids get sick?

Millions are starving, and we WERE helping. USAID was less than 1% of our budget, even though it not only helped feed the world, but it also collected intelligence.

Helping the world, helps Americans! Instead we’ve alienated allies, and isolated ourselves. America First shouldn’t be America alone.

There are so many Christian Nationalists in this administration, who cherry pick scripture to use as weapons against the people we’re supposed to love.

Christian Nationalism is White Supremacy. Their leaders in our government (Senator Eric Schmitt for example), claim that America was established as a “Homeland” for White European settlers.

They say that we shouldn’t include those that we brought here as slaves, or include the Native Americans that we, “as a great nation”, conquered.

They believe in the “White Replacement Theory”, which says that liberals only support immigration because they are trying to replace the White people in our country.

That’s certainly not why I support immigration! That thought had never even occurred to me, until these “men” crawled out from under the rocks they’d been hiding under, and started actually saying the words, in their outside voices.

I support legal immigration and a simple pathway to legal status, for immigrants who have worked in America, for sometimes decades, doing the jobs that Americans won’t do.

These peaceful workers, whose children were often born here and raised in our communities.

These are the ones who have often been taken advantage of by greedy, wealthy corporations, but have also paid taxes into our system, yet have gotten nothing in return.

These are often the ones who’ve never committed any crimes. MANY came here legally and then the rules were changed on them, and suddenly they’re called criminals.

People that were given asylum for religious persecution, or political. Many people who Churches helped to get here in the first place.

I always find it ironic when I hear about some Churches who pray for persecuted Christians around the world on Sunday, and then want to support sending Christians back to Muslim countries, where they will land with a target on their backs, especially because many of them had aided the US during war.

I’ve seen reports of Trump voters, who all of the sudden see their neighbor (let’s call her Maria) get arrested. Now it’s personal to them. They thought they were voting to get criminals out, not Maria! Maria’s kids are in school with their kids! Maria is a good person!

This is what I mean when I say what I did at the top of this article. Knowing people who are different, changes things, from an abstract idea, to a personal issue…

God has called His people to embrace the foreigners, to feed the hungry, take care of the prisoners, the sick, and the elderly. Jesus said that “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for Me.”

I strive to follow the teachings of Jesus, every day. That’s why I speak out.

Many don’t like what I say, but many message me, thanking me for saying it. They are people who need to see Jesus’ type of love, in action. I’m thankful that they say that they see it me.

Yes, I love deeply, but so did Jesus.